ACAL Energy says it has achieved key milestones in the development of its FlowCath platinum-free liquid cathode fuel cell technology.
The company has completed build of its first field test system, producing gross power of 3kW.
It has also achieved a new record peak performance power density of nearly 900mW/cm2 – a substantial improvement over the previous record of 600mW/cm2.
The firm has now built its first FlowCath demonstration unit, and is installing it at Solvay Interox's chemical plant at Warrington, Cheshire. There, it will provide continuous electrical power to a remote environmental monitoring system within the manufacturing facility.
The stack and regenerator sub-systems in the demonstration unit are together capable of producing over 3kW of electrical power, and represent a large scale-up from the previous generation test unit which produced about 1kW.
The demonstration system is part of a collaborative project that ACAL Energy is leading, co-funded by the Technology Strategy Board.
The project is seen as a major step towards commercialisation for this innovative technology, and is supported by ACAL Energy's partners: Solvay Interox, Johnson Matthey Fuel Cells, UPS Systems, the Centre for Process Innovation, the University of Southampton and the Manufacturing Engineering Centre at Cardiff University.
